Martha's Vineyard

Ginger watched her sister's kids a couple of weekends and so her sister and brother-in-law were really generous and paid for a night at Martha's Vineyard for us a few weeks back. This was the view from the ferry as we went out to the island.

This was at Sharkey's Cantina, a nice little Mexican restaurant. Ginger wanted me to show this picture so that you could get an idea of how big the nacho's were, I wanted to show this picture so that you could get an idea of how goofy I look when I'm eating, win-win.

The next day we drove around the island and this was at the tip of Gayhead.
There are something like 180 of these little houses with different bright colors all in one little village area that they call the gingerbread cottages . They were about the only thing unusual enough to visit, plus we really loved our previous pose so we thought we'd get as much mileage out of it as possible.

Cupcake Tins

I know this is a dumb thing to complain about but I am going to anyway. I just hate washing cupcake tins! You have to put the brush in each one of the compartments and make sure each one is completely clean. It is just a pain. I made cupcakes last week for Groundhog's Day and I have gone through a few loads of dishes since then and have even washed some other items by hand but I just can't get myself to wash the cupcake tins. I just set them aside nicely on the counter. There I said it, now I feel a lot better. Now I think I am going to finally wash those tins or throw them away (just kidding, I would never do that now. I only did that in college).

****UPDATE (about 2 hours later)****

Sam is washing them as I type. Oh he is so wonderful! Hooray for no more dirty cupcake tins in the sink!!

I love Sunbeams!

I just was called as a Sunbeam teacher in my ward. I absolutely love it. They are just so sweet. It is so nice to be able to spend some time with these sweet little kids. Sam and I haven't been able to have children of our own yet so this is the perfect medicine that I get a little dose of every week.

One of the many reason I love the Sunbeams happened last week in class. The lesson was on prayer. We talked about Daniel in the Lion's Den. This was part of the discussion.

Me: Do you think the lions hurt Daniel after he prayed to Heavenly Father in the Lions Den?

Jonathan: Mario and Luigi could get those lions so they won't hurt Daniel.

Me: Yes, Jonathan. I am sure they probably could.

I just love these kids!

Power outage

Yesterday afternoon there was a notice on the wall of our building that the power was going to be out from 8-3 today. The electric company was going to "improve" their system and wiring. This wasn't a big deal. I figured I could work early in the morning and then again at 3:00. It helps that Utah is 2 hours behind us so it would only be 1:00 there when I could work again. That didn't happen at all. The power finally came on again at 6:00 tonight. Oops, guess they didn't figure in some extra hours for mistakes.

It wasn't a terrible day though. I just broke out our lantern and was able to relax. I got halfway through my book and took an afternoon nap. It is nice when I don't have to work all day. When I knew the power wasn't coming on again at 3, I was responsible and went to the library where I was able to log onto my work computer and get some work done. I would much rather have power off then water off for the day. That happened once and I went crazy.

We are not friends anymore!

Yesterday was a terrible day! As I said before, we have construction going on and have a couple more weeks. I hate the construction guys being in my apartment everyday but it will be worth it in the end. They are no longer my friends, I hate them! Every night when they leave I go and plug in my bath and body works air freshener. The scent is lemonade. I just love the fresh smell especially after all those smelly men being around all day. They just don't leave my apartment smelling like roses. Well yesterday morning I forgot to unplug it before they came in. It was in an outlet they were working by so they took the liberty to unplug it themselves while I wasn't in the room anymore. They placed it on my table on its side on top of the puzzle I had just finished so all of the liquid ran out of it. It totally ruined that part of the puzzle and went through the puzzle and took off the finish and ruined my table. I later came out and saw what happened and I just started bawling. My poor table! My baby! We barely even eat on the thing because I don't want anything to happen to it until at least after we have kids and they ruin it. Why couldn't they have put it anywhere else but on the table!!?I am over it now. I realized that it wasn't the end of the world and I will survive. When I showed Sam, he didn't even think it was that bad. Oh but it is bad. Everytime I have seen the construction guys today, I just curse at them under my breath. It is kind of cool how the spot is shaped as puzzle pieces. I am just trying to find a way to get over it. At least now we will probably eat at the table more that I am not scared of scratching it anymore. Well that was my drama for the week.
On a happier note, yesterday was Groundhog's Day. We loved the cupcakes I made last year so I made them again and we celebrated by watching Groundhog's Day. We just love that movie and this is the perfect excuse to watch it every year.

Is the remodel worth it??

There has been some remodeling going on in my apartment complex for the last year or so and they are finally starting to work on my building which is so exciting. We are one of the last buildings. We have a big sliding glass door right now that we never use and they are going to put 2 windows there instead. The sliding glass door lets in so much air so it will be a lot warmer in here once we have the double paned windows.The last few days since I have been home from Utah, they have been starting to take off the siding and the rock and working on the roof. It has been so loud out there all day long. I can't exactly just leave all day since I work from home. The pounding is starting to become permanant in my head. I just have to keep telling myself that it will be all worth it in the end. Our apartment will be so cute. Oh but then we got a notice telling us the scheduled days that the construction workers will need access to our apartment. They had originally told us that it would just be a couple of days they would need to come in but not according to the schedule. They need access to my apartment starting next Tuesday and they pretty much will be coming in every day until February 16th. I guess I should just make the best of it and have Mormon rummy and picnic parties with them every day. They are going to practically be my roommate since I will still just be here working. It is going to be so wonderful. It will be all worth it in the end, right? I will have to give you an update on my new found friends.

Vermont

Our first destination was to Joseph Smith's birthplace. Now, normally, there is no way that I go to some touristy site and walk around with an elderly tour guide, but it was a Sunday, we just got out of church, we're still dressed up and we're visiting the birthplace of the man who restored the Lord's church, the very same church that we just spent 3 hours attending. This all came together to force some immense spiritual peer pressure on me and we ended up going on the guided tour. Not only was the tour the snoozefest that I was expecting, but the guide quizzed me on scripture, questioned my member missionary dedication, and challenged me to share the gospel more... awesome. Of course, he's right, but can't you just make me feel good and pat me on the back for even showing up, I mean come on, I wore a white shirt and tie for goodness sake.

We were ripping through the woods in this rugged six passenger golf cart with another couple (he took the picture) and this Elder/tour guide (not the same one that made me feel really good about my scripture studies), I just thought it was pretty funny. The other couple was taking pictures of all the sites and what do Ginger and I want to remember. Hey, we all have priorities, ours are just dumber.

Forget the monument, what you need to take from this picture is the fact that I set the timer on our camera, put it on this wall and ran up those stairs to pose with Ginger, all in under 10 seconds.

The next day we, of course, had to go to Ben & Jerry's. Ginger was pretty determined to be Ben in this picture, I thought she had some weird affinity for the the hat or something, but she's telling me it was the shorter face of the two, very practical of her.

This is the flavor graveyard, which is what it sounds like, flavors that didn't quite appeal to the masses. There were definitely some interesting concoctions.

Now this is a very special find. Let me introduce you to... the world's largest filing cabinet. I'll give you a moment to take it all in. This is our favorite so far, incredibly ridiculous and absurd, made even better with the rust and the half opened drawers.